The Bug War
by TheFamousEccles
Summary: A new danger will rise from beneath the Earth, the Bugs will consume all living things if you cannot stop them Nausicaa. Stop them, or the world will die, and so will everyone you love.Obaba. Cmon lets see some reviews
1. Chapter 1

"_The Devil's right hand, the Devil's right hand_ Mama said the pistol is the Devil's right hand" 

-Devil's right hand, Steve Earle

OXIC JUNGLE 

A lone, slight figure pushed their way through the countless fronds from the trees that made up the Toxic Jungle. Stopping occasionally to collect small odds and ends from the innumerable species of plants living there. The figure stopped. It spoke; voice muffled by an oxy-filter mask covering the lower half of its face "Something's not right", one could dtell at least that the explorer was female. She pushed the flight cap back to reveal narrowed dark, gray-green eyes that surveyed the area suspiciously. The explorer looked to the side, straining her ears…

_Crackcrackcrack! Crackcrackcrack!_

IT didn't take an idiot to figure out what that sound meant, gunshots, she took off, sprinting in the direction of the fire. As she ran she pulled a CZ-150a Assault Rifle off her shoulder and flicked the safety of the automatic weapon. Ahead the gunfire grew more and more intense. As she neared the site of the battle she saw what was going on. A ring of men and women were attacking insects she had never seen before that poured out of a gaping pit in the centre of a large clearing. The new insects were almost spider-like: a blob shaped body with four legs jutting from under it, three long mandibles each tipped with a spike, two long, scythe tipped arms above the upper mandibles and two smaller ones below. Each of the insects had eight eyes. The mandibles each held two, plus one on either side between them, and between the mandibles a gaping maw ringed with teeth. As she stared, shocked and disgusted by the battle and the hideous creatures a cloud of spores exploded behind her and something lifted her bodily into the air. Then it began to crush her, she new that before long her body would be ripped in half. One of the insects had picked her up, staring at her with its blank red eyes and giving a high pitched scream of victory that turned to a scream of pain as the insect's side was torn open. The attack continued, blowing off on mandible, a leg and both the insect's right-side arms. It finally crashed to the ground in a pool of its own bluish blood. Another two reared up, her instincts took over and she opened fire, the first insect was torn apart from the inside, she had fired into its gaping mouth. She rolled to dodge an attack by the second one and opened fire, blowing off two mandibles before the creature fell dead.

"We got 'em on the ropes, move to the hole! Bughole team get the charge ready!"

She stood up from the cloud of dust and one could see that she was about seventeen or eighteen, with short reddish brown hair. Then she saw what she had down, the CZ-150a fell from her hands as she crashed to the ground…

…Meanwhile in the centre of the clearing, at the rim of the pit Matton Maguire didn't have time to save the girl a second, no wait fiftieth time. He was pouring fore from his plastic, Wexley G-36 down into the pit. It was a high-tech weapon, plenty longer than an average assault rifle but fairly thin, rectangular body up about three quarters of the barrel and cylindrical at the end. Long transparent 50 round magazine, folding stock and carrying handle with a laser sight mounted on it. The weapon ran dry, Matton pressed a small button and the curved magazine fell out not having time to hit the ground before he slammed another one in, pulled the action back and opened fire again. The short weapon shook in his hands as it churned through the fifty 10mm rounds in the magazine.

"Charge's ready Matton!" Another soldier, Diesel shouted

"Toss it!" Matton ordered as he blasted another bug, this one fell back down and hit another two bugs along the way. "Two for one!" Matton shouted, at that moment a small cylinder fell down the hole.

"Charge away, everyone to cover!"

Matton sprinted in the direction of the fainted girl, scooping her up he dived into a small trench worn by the passing of many insects. He lay there with the unconscious girl for a few moments before the charge went off. A tall column of flame, clods of earth, plants and spore punched up twenty metres into the air, accompanied by a deafening _boom! _and a shockwave that flattened several small trees nearby. As the clods of earth began to rain down Matton stood, listening, nothing, the bugs were toast. In fact there were several charred bodies around the smoking crater that had one been a bughole. The other member of his ad hoc strikeforce stood as well or emerged from behind rocks and trees, cheering. Matton joined in, this was a victory of the Bugs, and it should be celebrated, they had too few victories. The girl stirred and moaned, her eyes fluttered open…

…When she regained consciousness the first thing Nausicaa heard was cheering, the first thing she felt was a killer of a headache, the first thing she saw was a tall man dressed in a cap, tattered shirt, flak vest and jeans holding a high tech assault rifle. He also had military webbing that held ammunition, a large revolver and several grenades.

"Name's Matton Maguire, Bug Hunter's my trade" Matton said, he stretched out a black leather gloved hand attached to a thick arm. Nausicaa took the proffered hand and Matton hauled to her feet without any effort. As her vision cleared Nausicaa saw about twenty people, men and women of various appearances were standing, carrying various weapons. Most had the same high-tech weapon Matton was carrying but others had shotguns, different assault rifles, longrifles or flamers. And most had spatters of bluish blood on their clothes. "What have you done? You savages!"

"What the hell you one kid? We just saved a lot o' innocent people, those Bugs aren't like your docile Insects, they're nasty. Their driven by only one thing: the desire to feed" Matton snapped. Stupid girl, who was she to question the man who was saving people's lives. The Bugs weren't insects, they weren't there to conserve the Jungle, they were there to consume it.

"What are you talking about?" Nausicaa asked, perplexed.

"The Bugs are an offshoot of the Insects, granted, but they aren't treehuggers like the Insects. They have only one desire like I said, to feed; If we don't fight them they'll consume every living thing on the planet. Including your precious insects, I once saw a swarm o' these things take down an Ohmu, never stood a chance. But these babies do" Matton patted the long G-36 now slung over his shoulder.

"Well, this is a new development, I hope you'll come back to my town with me so we can talk this over more fully." Nausicaa said, if what Matton said was true, then these truly were dangerous times to be alive. She had grown used to the normally peaceful Insects, but creature that were driven only by the desire to feed?

"We'd be honoured to accept" Matton replied, smiling behind his mask. Then to his team "Alright you apes, we're moving out. Let's go before we have a worn bursting through the ground. Or worse…"

From above a human figure watched the group troop out from the clearing, smoke still issuing from the now sealed Bughole. It was not a huge loss, the Bugs would dig another hole somewhere else, perhaps closer to a town. The figure, dressed in black robes with a hood and mask over its face had one comment on the situation "Fools, they think that if they kill lots of Bugs they've scored a victory. I know the truth: there's only one kind of victory when you're dealing with the bugs, the one that buys you time enough to reload for the next wave. If the Toxic Jungle doesn't wipe out Humanity the Bugs will gladly do it" with that the figure danced from tree limb to tree limb, following the group, intent on carrying out its plan for them, and for the girl they traveled with…


	2. Chapter 2

"_But when Johnny Come Latey Comes marching home_

_With a chest full of medals and G.I. Loan_

_They'll be waiting at the station down in San Antone_

_When Johnny comes marching home"_

-Johnny Come Latey, Steve Earle

WASTELANDS

The group pushed its way through the last of the ferns that seemed to thrive at the edge of the Toxic Jungle and came out on an undulating desert whose only features were slight crests and a couple of far, massive humanoid skeletons. The first thing Nausicaa spotted was her new party's transports. Four gliders, a Pejite made FW-190, the same model her old friend Asbel had flown to shoot down the transport she had been held hostage onboard and finally a Gransport E-25 Hind Helicopter Drop/Gunship. The large chopper had two main rotors at 45-degree angles, their paths intersected but the blades never touched. The body consisted of a rectangular cabin, two bubble canopies and a long tail boom in which sat the tail rotor, set in the middle of three tails with two small tail wings. Mounted on the sides of the twin Ruhurh Mk. VII engines were long wings with missiles and rocket pods slung underneath. The nose also housed a pair of turret mounted LMGs (Light Machine Guns). Nausicaa walked to her own glider, landed in a small furrow in the sand not to far away. She looked over her shoulder and shouted "Follow me to my valley, I'll wait and orbit at low altitude."

"Right-o Chief!" Matton had been addressing her as 'Chief' since he found out that she was Chieftain of the Valley. He turned to his people, who were starting up the gliders, fighter and chopper. "Alright boys and girls we're moving out, get your gear on the Hind and follow my lead! Get moving!" the Bug Hunters hastened to comply, pulling the sliding doors on the Hind's flanks open and stowing their gear in the cargo compartment. Matton walked over to the third glider and started it up; he lifted the glider into the air and hit the afterburner to give it some more speed. With that he coasted for a thermal, found one and rode it high up in a graceful spiral. He drifted out level with Nausicaa "Where's this valley of yours" Matton shouted over the wind.

"Just to the North East, follow me and you'll be fine" Nausicaa shouted back.

On the ground the twin main rotors of the Hind began to twirl, complex gyroscopes ensuring that the blades would never meet, the tail rotor started up as the main rotors began disk shaped blurs and the Hind slowly rose from the ground. The pilot retracted her landing gear and turned her in midair, the agile Drop/Gunship (Common term for Helicopter Dropships that also function as Gunships, also called a DropGuns) responding on a dime. As the three remaining gliders and the FW-190 pulled into formation around it the mismatched squadron followed the two gliders upfront as the set off on a course leading them North East.

VALLEY OF THE WIND

The massive landing pad at the seaward end of the Valley was new, a massive gleaming steel platform with a long runway pointing out to sea, it stood out like a sore thumb amidst the gray stone that was used in almost every building in the Valley. It was a tall building in the form of a flattened stone cylinder; despite this shape it still towered over the rest of the valley, exceeded only in height by the two-towered castle itself. An old, hardened man stood in the control tower of the landing pad, looking out over the bronzed metal pad, crates and fuel tanks surrounding the four pads. Two Gransport E-15 Highlander Heavy Transport choppers were parked on Pad 1, nearest to the control tower. They had long pipes from the nearby fuel tanks pumping precious fuel into their own tanks. On the furthest pad, number 3 there was an old, battered Tolmekian Corvette, privately owned by a wealthy business man, who stood at the back of the plane buying and selling things of all shapes, sizes and descriptions. Despite its ugly appearance the landing pad had been a great boon for the Valley. Several small time trade lanes had been altered for pilots to take advantage of the pad, meaning that the Valley was now a certified trade post for refueling pilots. It was also doing a roaring trade in valuable fuel, bought from nearby towns and sold to pilots coming and going from places you've never heard of and will probably never hear of again. The old man looked into the sky and saw several glints, somehow he knew it was Nausicaa's glider, but what were the others?

As they came closer he took up a pair of binoculars and focused o the flight group: five gliders, one FW-190 and a Gransport E-25 Hind Drop/Gunship. He figured that Nausicaa had made some new friends, something she did with great ease. The man turned, walked to the far end of the control room and descended the stone staircase. Not the entire landing pad was made of steel, just the pad itself, the runway and the side of the tower that faced the pad. The rest was in actual fact made of stone, so it didn't stand out quite as much as some thought, Lord Yupa thought that its benefit to the Valley outweighed its ugliness. The old man hit a button and the steel door that granted access to the landing pad slid up into a recess in the wall. He walked out onto the pad, the ever-present wind from the sea blowing his cape back and tugging at his short hair and thick beard. Despite his graying hair and age he was a tough man with wiry muscles and a long sword always at his side and an Ohmu shell dagger hidden under his cloak. His name was Lord Yupa Miralda, often called the greatest swordsman in the land and those unfortunate enough to rouse his ire and live to tell the tale would testify to it, except that there were very few such people.

The small flight group drew closer, two gliders out in front and the chopper, thee other gliders and fighter following. The lead gliders landed nearby while the others circled until they got landing permission. As the two glider pilots walked towards Yupa the E-25 set down, followed by the other craft once its twin rotors had stopped spinning. The shorter one pulled off her cap and mask, proving it was Nausicaa, the wind blowing her short red-brown hair back. The taller one was a man withshorter brown hair that hung to about his eyes, strands of which were being tugged at by the wind; he also had a full goatee. While Nausicaa wore a simple tunic and trousers this stranger was dressed in a flak jacket, shirt, jeans and body webbing that held magazines, grenades, grenade launcher shells and a large .457 Magnum revolver. A Wexley G36 hung from his shoulder, the long barreled rifle looking like an extension of his arm, which was casually draped over the barrel. At his waist were two swords: a long katana and a shorter wakazashi, both made of what looked like Ohmu Shell. The pair reached Yupa, Nausicaa smiling, the stranger looking grim, as it seemed he always did, but then again these were grim times.

"Lord Yupa!" Nausicaa cried out as she recognized him, Yupa had I fact been away on one of his many expeditions, this latest one was why when Nausicaa pulled the old man into a hug that he hissed in pain. "Lord Yupa are you hurt?" Nausicaa's voice immediately held worry.

"I got attacked by a new form of Insect I have never seen before, deadly and vicious it was, I had not even provoked it." Yupa explained, normally Insects would attack unless provoked. This however had come straight at him. Yupa had only just drawn his Longrifle and killed it in time, and then he had made a hasty escape lest more appear.

"Blob like body, three mandibles eight limbs and eyes?" Matton asked.

"Yes that's the one, how did you know?" Lord Yupa asked, mystified as to how this redneck would know about Insects.

"That wasn't an Insect, that was a Bug and your lucky you survived being jumped by one. They're cunning vicious bastards" Matton informed him "I'm not explaining this several times over"

"Alright everyone, I said I would listen to what you have to say Matton and I will, we have a Council meeting hall in the castle, we will talk more there" Nausicaa broke up the fight she had sensed was ready to start between the two.

As the trio, accompanied by three of Matton's Marauders who he identified as a woman with a military haircut and a G36 called Valerie Santiago, an enormous black, sawn-off shotgun wielding man called Torch and a slight man with a scoped Longrifle they all called Stitcher.

Above on a high rooftop the masked man lay, a scoped Longrifle in his hands, he was staring intently down the scope. In his sights were five people, and right between the crosshairs was a young woman with rusty hair, a blue tunic and white trousers. Others surrounded her, but they were unimportant, it was the young girl called Nausicaa that the masked man knew must die.

_She will have powers she knows not of_

_She will be born of a kind heart and spirit_

_She must die_

_If Those Who Live In Shadows are to truly achieve ascendancy_

_And those whop aid them will be richly rewarded._

That was why he would kill her, he would earn his salvation from this accursed rock with just a squeeze of the trigger. Slowly, ever so slowly so as not to jolt his aim, he flicked the safety off and curled his finger around the barrel. He began to squeeze the trigger…


End file.
